The Collect for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Keep Your family safe, O Lord, with unfailing care, that, relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by Your protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Keep Your family safe, O Lord – We are God's family. When we were baptized, we entered into a covenant with Him, a family bond made by swearing an oath (which, if we were infants, our parents and godparents did for us and which we begin to renew on our own as we grow old enough). Jesus initiated this New Covenant by His life, passion, death, and resurrection, and He made it possible for us to enter into the family of God in a new and far more intimate way than ever before. We are now sons in the Son, heirs in the Heir, God's children by adoption thanks to the sacrifice of love made by His only-begotten Son. When we pray for safety, we do so with great trust, knowing that good, loving parents always want to keep their children safe and that God is the best and most loving of parents.

with unfailing care – God never fails to care for us. We may not always feel His care because our minds are too focused on our problems rather than on His love, but we can be certain that God is always taking care of us. If He did not, we would simply cease to exist.

relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace – We can do nothing on our own. We cannot merit our salvation. We cannot earn our way to Heaven. God always goes before us with His grace. He always takes the initiative. He always paves the way. But we must respond to His grace, accepting it, embracing it, living by it, and placing our hope in it (for God's grace is more powerful than we can ever imagine).

they may be defended always by Your protection – We are most likely not even aware of many of the ways in which God has protected us over the years. We have no idea how many times He has kept us from harm or lightened our burdens or lifted us up from the depths. So we pray with confidence that He will always defend us, for He loves us infinitely.